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Staff

Dr. Bretton Somers
Cultural Resources Supervisor

Dr. Bretton Somers

Dr. Somers joined the team at GSRC as an archaeologist and GIS specialist in 2007. His 2007 completion of his doctorate provided him with 6 years of experience in archaeological research, fieldwork, and GIS analysis. With GSRC, Dr. Somers has supervised and participated in over 40 cultural resources investigations including Section 106, Section 110, and NEPA projects in 15 states, including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Texas, and Vermont. Dr. Somers has also worked outside the U.S. in Belize and Cuba. This involvement has provided a broad base of experience in prehistoric and historic archaeology across several regions of North America, allowing him the opportunity to work with numerous tribal and government agencies at the local, state, and Federal levels, and has given him a broad knowledge of cultural resources laws and regulations.

In addition to conventional field methods, Dr. Somers has 11 years of experience collecting spatial data for archaeological investigations and implementing these data in GIS. He has extensive field experience using Topcon total stations, fully manual transits, and Trimble GPS units, and primarily uses ArcGIS, ArcPad, and TerraSync software for processing and analysis of data with specialization in spatial analysis and predictive modeling.

Dr. Somers meets the Secretary of the Interior’s Professional Qualification Standards in Archaeology and is a Registered Professional Archaeologist. Dr. Somers earned a Ph.D. and Master of Arts in geography from Louisiana State University. He also received a Bachelor of Arts in communication from the University of New Hampshire.

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